evangelism | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts Book Review: The Greenhouse Project

This Christmas break I finished up a review copy of the Mike Calhoun book The Greenhouse Project: Cultivating Students of Influence – a good read for anyone looking to overhaul or reemphasize discipleship in their student ministry. The book actually covers more than discipleship, but the theme is very primary and central to his thesis that of all the purposes for student ministry – discipleship is the one that matters the most. Each chapter is guided by a contributing writer like Greg Stier, Mel Walker or Jay Strack, so while the writing feels a bit random, the multiple voices lends credibility and varied perspective. My wife actually graduated from Word of Life Bible Institute and I have enjoyed the camps and speakers in the past – I think the book is good for many settings though if you’re a “Word of Life church” it’ll really hit you where you’re at. Great title, too, our student ministry should be a greenhouse for helping students grow up in Christ.

JG

2 View Comments December 31, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Mission Critical Jobs

I’m taking a break and letting my brain breathe from a project that I’ve been working on this morning. (This is actually one that I’ve been working on for months and will probably continue to develop it for years) But what I’m working on is something I call Mission Critical Jobs. These are coordinator jobs that are critical to our youth ministry. It’s our goal to have a volunteer in each of these roles and empower them with the ability to do more than just fulfill a job description but to have a passion and vision for that ministry area and how it will help advance God’s work at our church and in our community. (Craig Groeschel once said “Delegate authority, not responsibility”)

Some may say, isn’t the youth minister supposed to do these jobs? Yes and No. Yes…the youth minister should oversee and work with these coordinators to see that all these major areas are being developed and led in a productive way. No…it would be near impossible for one person to truly devote themselves to all these areas. No one excels in all these areas. No one is a “people person”, a visionary, a detail-er, an organizer, a designer….you get the point. We all have strengths and so we should capitalize on those and let others with a different set of strengths focus on theirs and fill in those gaps where we struggle. Not only that, in the majority of churches, youth ministries are overseen by one youth minister and there is only so much one person (especially those with a family) can do.

That is why I am convinced that without a team of key, high-level volunteers, our youth ministry (and others) will quickly reach it’s wall of effectiveness and sooner or later, even begin to regress. So, if you’re in youth ministry, start today working on what your mission critical jobs are. Be sure to develop some sort of job description or at least a detailed list of responsibilities. Then, prioritize them in order of what is needed now and start finding people who want to do more than just chaperone a trip or bring in donuts. Find those adults who want to pour their heart into a vital part of youth ministry.

This will probably an ever growing and developing list but here are our Mission Critical Jobs right now (in no particular order)…

Bible School Coordinator
Breakaway Coordinator (our weekly youth worship)
Sunday Night Coordinator
Wednesday Night Coordinator
Service Coordinator
Mexico Mission Trip Coordinator
Teen Lounge Coordinator (our youth room)
Big Events Coordinator
Shepherding Coordinator
Outreach/Evangelism Coordinator
Prayer Coordinator
Volunteer Coordinator
Technology Coordinator
VBS Coordinator (don’t judge, believe it or not, our teen VBS draws a pretty large crowd)

Joe Thompson is the mission critical Youth Minister at Fairmount Christian Church. Check out his blog right here and tell him JG sent ya.

Add Comment December 12, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts 5 Youth Ministry Numbers I Keep an Eye On

As youth pastors we don’t like to talk about numbers, but they matter and people are definitely looking at them.

Try as we might to help leadership see the student ministry discipleship process as more than a headcount, it remains as one of the universally accepted currencies of “health” in youth ministry to the outside observer. Here are a few numbers that I keep an eye on- add other numbers you think are important in the comments:

Weekend attendance – we use a simple headcount to track this metric. It matters, especially to see trends in the year, trends by series/topics, and shifts in big picture participation. This measurement is often weighted too much in many church cultures (ours included), but it can still be a helpful number to watch because people do vote with their feet. A growing weekend number reflects a strong ideal entry-point for our student ministry, students are entering the ministry through the top of the funnel. To some degree, this reflects the health of friendship evangelism in HSM.

Small group signups – we use churchteams.com to track this number, the system is also great as it allows us to stay in touch easily with our leaders. We understand that the additional level of commitment to join a small group causes participation to decrease, so we expect this number to be less than the weekend number. Knowing how many students are signed up and/or actually attending can be helpful to make sure students are entering and flourishing at the next step in the discipleship process. This number should grow in proportion to the weekend number.

Salvations/baptisms – we try weekly to share about the life-changing message of Christ, and once a month we have baptisms offered after all of the 4 weekend student services. It is continually important and recharging to see how God is changing lives. We celebrate any student that accepts Christ and gets baptized because it is such an important step across the line of faith. This number is usually compiled from respose cards collected on the weekend.

Text Database – Texting is our primary method of communication with students, and we use SimplyTxt to keep track of all of the students we can contact about our ministry. We have all types of students in this database, but seeing this number grow is a reflection of the lives we are touching. Students can sign up online and be added/removed with a checkbox on the response card.

Blog/social media traffic/friends – This one is still very emerging to me, but it would be nice to see what kind of “buzz” is out there in the wild about your youth ministry. Using Google Analytics, YouTube Insight, Twitter Search and other analytical tools you can see who is viewing your videos, visiting your blog, how many people are checking you out and see what people are saying about your services and their church experience.

There are other numbers that certainly matter (kids doing ministry, offering, distribution of spiritual growth tools, etc) – what matters most to you? What’s missing here?

JG